Uses

Things that help me get stuff done.

Hardware

  • Dell XPS 13 - I have a love-hate relationship with this machine. It’s tiny and super portable, but has a tendency to heat up like the Sun and sound like a miniature jet engine.

  • Samsung Galaxy S24 - Wanted a compact phone. Liked the size at first. Realised it’s so slippery it needs a strong case to protect it. Doesn’t feel compact anymore.

  • Garmin Instinct - Reliable and accurate sports watch with godly battery life. Does what it says on the box and no more. Perfection. 👍

  • Realme T310 TWS earbuds - Plays music. Sounds decent. Does some noise cancelling.

⚡Don’t spend a bomb on something that can fall out of your ears and roll under the counter at your local Adyar Ananda Bhavan.

  • Samsung M7 32 inch 4K monitor - Big enough to do split screen. Can power a laptop through Thunderbolt. Doubles up as a TV. Has a remote. Great office monitor/bedroom TV/ PS5 display.

  • Logitech MX Keys and MX Master 3 - Easy Buy It For Life recommendation. They’re a bit pricey, but their popularity makes finding pre-owned deals a decent option.

  • Sony PS5 - Didn’t have the patience to build another gaming PC. No regrets.

⚡PS games will never be as VFM as Steam, but buying pre-owned discs and reselling them has really helped bring down the ownership cost.

  • Anbernic RG Cube XX - Impulse buy to fuel the Millennial ache for retro tech to play Pokemon games on.

Software

  • Raycast - Big productivity booster. Makes you see your computer differently.
  • Claude - Can’t tell for sure if its the best AI tool, but it helped build this site’s theme. So there’s that.
  • Obsidian - Claude likes Markdown. This site needs Markdown. Obsidian does Markdown.
  • WSL2 - Easiest way for most people to tinker with Linux. One of the few good things Microsoft has done of late.

Homelab

  • Docker - Abstracts a lot of complexity. Widely supported. Docker Compose is noob friendly.
  • Cloudflare - Manages domains, and protects public-facing services.
  • Tailscale - Easy to set up mesh VPN with some great quality of life features.
  • Nginx Proxy Manager - Reverse proxy of choice. Might try Caddy or Traefik later.
  • Vaultwarden - No-nonsense password manager. Thanks to the cool folks at Bitwarden.
  • Mealie - Home to all the recipes I tell myself I will make.
  • Actual Budget - Still figuring out how to use this. But apparently you should track your money.
  • Sparky Fitness - Hopefully will replace MyFitnessPal and Hevy.

I’m always looking for new things to try. Please send me your recommendations to hello@soorajrajmohan.com.